This sandbox is being used to draft a proposed help page/policy, UESPWiki:Accounts and Usernames. For my sanity, please keep a paws-off policy with this page; direct all comments related to this sandbox to my talk page.

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You are not required to create an account on UESPWiki in order to contribute, but there are many benefits to doing so. Users who edit anonymously can edit any page or talk page that is not protected, but cannot add any external links without passing a CAPTCHA, upload files or images, or move pages. Users who edit while logged in to an account can:

Mark edits as “minor”

Move pages

Edit semi-protected pages

Upload files and images

Skip the CAPTCHA check when adding and external link to a page

In addition, edits you make while logged in to an account will not display your current IP address, and you may customize your wiki interface by setting options in your preferences, or by adding personal CSS or JavaScript rules to your monobook.css or monobook.js files. You must be able to allow cookies in order to log in.

To create a UESPWiki account, click the log in / create account link in the upper right corner of any wiki page. From there, click the “create an account” link, and you will be prompted to select a username, create a password, and pass a CAPTCHA check. You will also have the option to enter your real name if you choose, and you may also provide an email address. Associating an email address with your account is the only way you will be able to recover your account details if you forget your username or password. Providing an email address wil also give you the option to let other editors contact you by email (this can be set in your preferences). From this screen (and the login screen later on), you can check a box to allow the site to remember your login for 180 days.

Your username will identify you for all the other users at UESPWiki, so you many not want to use your real name. Using your email address as your account name is not recommended, as it will make your email account a target for spammers. In addition, your username should not contain:

offensive, confusing, random, or unreadable text

names of developers, celebrities, or well-known editors

names that include commonly used software or community terms (e.g. "Admin" or "Contributions")

names that imply that you intend to cause trouble (e.g. "Vandal" or "Troll")

Some Elder Scrolls-related names are very popular and have been used in a large number of accounts, so a few names and their variants have been blacklisted and cannot be used in new accounts. These include:

After your account has been registered, you will be logged in and can begin editing as a new user. Until you have made at least ten edits and your account is at least four days old, your account is not considered autoconfirmed. This means that during this temporary period, you will not be able to move pages, edit semi-protected pages, or post an external link without passing a CAPTCHA. Once your account has been autoconfirmed, those restrictions will disappear and you will be allowed to edit normally.

If you are new to UESPWiki or new to editing wikis in general, please take a few minutes to go over our help pages to familiarize yourself with some of our policies and basic wiki editing. Feel free to ask a mentor if you need one-on-one help with any aspect of wiki editing.

Many users decide to create a user page to tell other users a little about themselves or display a few userboxes. Some users also like to upload custom banners or images of their characters for their user pages. If you’d like to upload images to decorate your page, please see the image guide for help and how to name images for user pages. If you need help designing your page, try browsing through other users’ pages to see what you like and modifying a design to suit your needs. As always, you can ask a mentor for help if anything is unclear or not working as you expected.

If you don't like the username you picked or need to change it for any other reason, post a request on the Administrator Noticeboard with the name you would like to switch to and a brief reason for your request. Keep in mind that many usernames will already be taken, you so the name you want may not be available. Old accounts are never deactivated on UESPWiki, even if no edits have ever been made with that account, since many users choose not to edit but prefer to log in to read pages with certain preferences enabled. For that reason, old accounts cannot be reassigned to a new user.

If the rename request is approved, an administrator will rename your account. All of your previous contributions will be automatically credited to your new account name, and redirects will be created from your old user pages to your new ones. If very few pages link to your old user page and talk page, you may be asked to update the links; otherwise, the redirects will remain in place to make sure other users get to the right place when they look for you.

UESPWiki is a small online community, and despite our best efforts to maintain a high standard of etiquette, conflicts do occur. If you find that, as a result of one of these conflicts, you would rather continue editing under a different username, please contact an active administrator right away to work out a solution. Users wishing to make a “clean start” (completely abandon their old account and edit only with a new account) must notify at least one administrator of the new account name. Editing under multiple account names (ie: using name A for a while, then name B for a while, then A again) is not permitted, and such behavior may lead to a ban on all of your accounts.